For Immediate Release

April 2, 2024

Click Here to read the statement from Downstate students

"The student body of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University has joined the wide and diverse chorus of voices calling on Governor Hochul and SUNY Chancellor King to keep Downstate Hospital open. This group consists of medical students and residents – New York’s next generation of doctors – who are there every day supporting the health and well-being of patients at SUNY Downstate Hospital. They know firsthand how important the hospital is to their training and to the Central Brooklyn community.

"The Governor has heard from the students, residents, doctors, and nurses who teach and work at Downstate. She has heard from the Central Brooklyn community and clergy, as well as members of organized labor and the New York state Legislature. Who else does she need to hear from to understand that Brooklyn Needs Downstate? What else needs to happen to help the Governor and the Chancellor grasp the reality of the situation, that the more than 400,000 patients treated at Downstate each year will be harmed by the hospitals closing and the education of thousands of medical students and residents will be drastically compromised? What will it take?

"We implore the Governor to listen to the voices of the people. So many New Yorkers are calling in unison to save SUNY Downstate Hospital. We are asking Gov. Hochul to invest in its future so that it can be a world-class hospital and medical school for the people of Brooklyn and across New York."